© Jonas Forsberg/Metsä Board
Metsä Board has invested €38 million in a new extrusion coating line at its paper mill in northern Sweden.
The installation at the Husum mill has an annual capacity of about 100,000 tonnes. It joins a 270,000-tonne linerboard machine and a 400,000-tonne folding boxboard machine that started production at the beginning of 2016.
Metsä Board CEO Mika Joukio said: “In developing the new PE-coated grades we have utilised our longstanding board making expertise combined with the latest technology. We have an integrated facility at Husum, which is a clear advantage. We are sourcing wood close to the mill and producing pulp, board and extrusion-coated board in the same facility with an excellent location near the harbour. This enables us to minimise transport and improve the efficiency and sustainability of the supply chain which is important to us and our customers.”
The fruits of its labour at Husum are a range of paper packaging options, including the Lidloc cup with a folding paperboard lid that launched in March.
The new extrusion coating line is now producing first orders and will serve the global foodservice market, offering improved availability and competitive products, the company said. Metsä Board’s PE-coated paperboards respond to the tight requirements of the foodservice market by providing product safety, purity and protection for cups, plates and other forms of takeaway packaging.
The company is continuing its development work on other barrier solutions, including the use of bio-based materials.
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